Preschool
This is a busy time of year for many people. At the moment we have some casual places available on a Monday and Thursday. See Kay if you would like to arrange for any extra days.
What a busy few weeks we have had. There has been so much going on that it was difficult to choose what to expand on for this newsletter. Some of the activities we have been doing are having a tea party, dancing, bushwalking, playing music on the key boards, cooking cookies, investigating silk worms, making fragrant playdough using rosemary and lavender as well as lots of painting, blocks, running, swinging and so much more.
Welcome to Mabel who started recently and to her parents Sam and Ed. Mabel knows a little bit about the preschool because her older sister Willow used to come here. She also knows some of the other children and she has enjoyed her first couple of days playing with duplo, painting and sandpit games.
Welcome also to Ava. Also welcome to her parents Melanie and David. Ava is playing with all sorts of activities and she has been happily chatting with many new friends.
Over the past couple of months many children have been interested in dinosaurs. You may have noticed a clay skull that the children made at the end of last term. There is a story book with photos of how this was made, so please have a look with your child. In this activity there was a lot of discussion about dinosaurs and we wanted to draw out what the children collectively knew about dinosaurs. So we started the process of making a 3D mind map. The mini dinosaur world that Gus, Lucas, Tom and Louie gathered things from around the garden which may have been around in the dinosaur times. Gus was interested in building a volcano and have it erupt. We will look into making this happen. This activity led into the 3D mind map.
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Over a couple of sessions with different children we asked generally what they knew about dinosaurs. The focus was on what they knew already, not to give answers. The areas that came up were that dinosaurs eat meat or vegetables, they lay eggs, there are fossils from dinosaurs, they lived in deserts, sky and sea, there are many different types, dinosaurs died a long time ago.
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Catherine, a teaching student from Curtin University, scribed what the children were saying and Felicity tried to delve deeper into their understandings by asking clarifying questions. These snippets of knowledge were related to a 3D object like a plastic T-Rex, a tree for the vegetable eaters, a fossil of a shell, a picture of the sea/sky, an obscure bone. We laid out these comments on the floor with the children to demonstrate how the different comments would be grouped into similar topics like all the egg comments were together, all the comments about what they eat were together. Once this was put up as a display we could see that the area of fossils was an area that could be easily extended and followed up. So on another day the children made their own ice fossils. They put a toy dinosaur in a balloon and filled it up with water and then put them in the freezer. There was a lot of discussions about how paleontologists would find frozen or calcified parts dinosaurs and would dig them out. So the digging and chipping began. They used some small utensils to chip away at the ice and some warm water was dripped on to the ice eggs to help with the process. There are still some frozen eggs to be excavated next week.
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What else will we find out about dinosaurs?
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On Friday 28th October we had Tinkering. Preschool usually has a ‘pod’. The primary school has 3 sessions throughout the day. On Friday there were things like Lego making, drawing classes run by one of the Group 3 students, ………… Preschools pod was t-shirt drawing. In the morning the preschoolers had a turn. They drew quite intricate drawings on paper and then did them onto the t-shirts with the special crayons. They were ironed so that the drawing would be steadfast.
In the afternoon, some children from primary came and did some t-shirts. They too did a design on paper first and then transferred this to the t-shirt. Isobel, Elly S’s mum, helped with the pod and ironed all of the t-shirts ready for collection at the end of the day. Thanks Isobel.
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We have a Pre School Morning Tea on We have a Pre School th November, Wednesday 16 Morning Tea on Wednesday 16th9.15am-11.15am. November, 9.15amAll Welcome! 11.15am. All Wellcome! something health to Bringbring something healthy to share. share.
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Snack Attack has been a part of Kinma for a very long time...and how wonderful for the children to have their parents come in and fill the air with a good home-cooked meal. There have been some amazing foods and traditional goodies that parents have become loved and famous for. There are 73 children in the Primary and 26 in Preschool, approx. 10 adults on Wednesdays. We have 21 gluten-free, 17 dairy-free children, and 12 vegetarians. If your child is any or all of these 3, please let me know. Usually we have 2-3 parents that come in on a Wednesday and one makes the Main and the other Dessert...or you do it all together on the day. It is a great way to meet and get to know the parents of Kinma and spend the day with the children. Like everything at Kinma it is a very relaxed easy day. There are not many rules, all we ask is for it not to be too junky and offer vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options. The kids really enjoy Snack attack, and it's great when we can make Snack Attack happen every week. Below are the dates for Term 4 Snack Attack.
PLEASE REMEMBER – We do not use nuts or nut products anywhere at Kinma.
Nov 16 Nov 23 Nov 30 Dec 7 Dec 14
Rachel, Sally M, & 1 helper needed Preschool
If you have any questions or want to contribute please email me at
[email protected] or call 0435 145 486. Thanks, Hayley Lewis (Turiee’s mum)
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Some examples of successful meals have included Chicken wings/ drumsticks and salad, tacos, nachos, pasta dishes, pizza, sushi, quiche, fruit and yoghurt, baked apples with cream/yoghurt, natural ice blocks… and much more. All expenses for ingredients are reimbursable.
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